One hundred and fifty years have passed since the beginning of events that would spiral into four years of destruction, death, devastation, sacrifice, and hell. On this anniversary, some might say it is time to celebrate the war's end. The authors believe that it is a time to remember and to try to understand. The purpose of this text is neither to assess the motives that moved the Confederate States to secede nor is it to measure the motives of the millions from the North and South who were drawn to battle. Instead, the authors choose to highlight the recent research of historians and histori ... More

One hundred and fifty years have passed since the beginning of events that would spiral into four years of destruction, death, devastation, sacrifice, and hell. On this anniversary, some might say it is time to celebrate the war's end. The authors believe that it is a time to remember and to try to understand. The purpose of this text is neither to assess the motives that moved the Confederate States to secede nor is it to measure the motives of the millions from the North and South who were drawn to battle. Instead, the authors choose to highlight the recent research of historians and historical archaeologists in order to better understand the political, social, and support contexts in which the military of both sides operated. The studies selected include new information on the conduct and flow of specific battles fought in the eastern and western theaters of the war. As importantly, however, they provide insight into the nature of the culture of war in which the common soldier and sailor was immersed on a regular basis.